Montvale Jewelers owner interrupts man robbing store

Police are looking for an unidentified man who allegedly cut the phone lines at Montvale Jewelers on Feb. 3 and took more than $200,000 in merchandise while the store was closed, Police Chief Jeremy Abrams said.

Borough police as well as back-up from Orangetown, N.Y. and Park Ridge were dispatched to the jewelry store on Railroad Avenue shortly after 8 p.m. in search of the man. The owner - who had not been working that evening - "interrupted" the ski-mask-clad man and saw him flee out the back door and turn north behind the building onto Kinderkamack Road at which point he called police. The suspect was tracked by a K-9 unit and is believed to have left the scene of the crime in a car, police said.

On Monday afternoon a detective was on scene and the store owner was inventorying a list of stolen items, Abrams said. The Bureau of Criminal Investigation is processing a video of the robbery, Abrams added.

Montvale Jewelers has been robbed at least twice in the past two years, Abrams said, with arrests made last month of three people allegedly involved in a distraction robbery - two of whom were involved in a previous robbery at the store in October 2011.